21_st_.—­Arrived at Malta.  Ours is the first steamer that has reached the island since the removal of the quarantine; we went on shore directly after breakfast.  Isaac Lowndes was rejoiced to see me.  We met in the street, and he conducted us to his house.  He has been in Malta seven years, acting for the Bible Society; he gives no bright account of among the Greeks, as to spiritual religion, nor of the island generally.  The present governor has admitted the Jesuits into the island, who are doing mischief; privileges are being granted to the Romanists to the prejudice of the Protestants; and a regulation has been proposed which would subject a Protestant to six months imprisonment for not taking off his hat when he meets the procession of the Host.

Isaac Lowndes took John Yeardley and William Rasche to visit Selim Aga, or, as he was named after baptism, Edward Williams; who with his wife, sister-in-law, and four children, formed an interesting Christian household.  J.Y. published the history of this man in No. 13 of his series of tracts, Turkey and the Converted Turk, where also he has depicted several scenes from the latter part of this journey.

Arriving at Marseilles, they proceeded quickly on to Nismes.  It was with a gush of natural sorrow that J.Y. revisited a place whore he had often sojourned with his beloved wife.

The thought, he writes, of the difference in my circumstances now and when last in this place fills me with sorrow.  The beloved one of my bosom, then the stay and solace of my heart, is no more with me to help and comfort me in the toils of life.  Yet when I consider what a large amount of suffering she has escaped, I cannot but rejoice that she is at rest with her God and Saviour, where I humbly hope soon to meet her.  Lord, prepare thy unworthy worm for that awful but joyful day!

John Yeardley held a small public meeting at Nismes, and the next day, the 3rd of the Tenth Month, set out for the bathing-place of Bagneres de Bigorre, in the Pyrenees.  His principal reason for going there was to recruit his shattered health.  “On our arrival at Nismes,” he says, “and during our few days’ sojourn there, I began to feel the effects of my long, toilsome Russian journey; and, in the hope of preventing a return of my suffering complaint, I thought it justifiable to make trial of the sulphur baths and water of Bagneres.”  But he had also another object in view:  “I had long thought,” he adds, in a letter from Bigorre, “whether there was not a seeking people in this neighborhood, and now I think there is.”

His first care on arriving at Bigorre, was to call on Pastor Frossard, formerly of Nismes, who feelingly reminded him of the changes which had happened to each of them since they had met before.  He proposed to John Yeardley to meet some Christian friends at his chapel.  This was just what J.Y. had been wishing for.  The meeting was held; and after it was over he gave the company an account of his travels in Russia, with which they were highly gratified.